112 Account of the Purple-fruited Passion Flower. 



well as the figures, agree with those of Parkinson and 

 Johnson, which I have before mentioned; and I have 

 little doubt but that the plant of the old English authors, 

 and of the cotemporary Italian writers, was the same. If 

 this be so, and if our old gardeners are correct in stating 

 Virginia to be the native country of their plant, then the 

 Peruvian habitat must be abandoned; but I know their 

 authority, on such points, cannot be relied on. In modern 

 times, no plant has been found in, or brought from, Peru, 

 which can be assimilated to the old Fior del Passione of 

 the Italians ; a discovery of this nature is wanting to clear 

 up the question, which may, however, be somewhat elu- 

 cidated, if a specimen of that plant should hereafter be 

 found in any herbarium of the period, when it was in culti- 

 vation in Europe. With respect to the Granadilla of Mo- 

 nardus, I consider it useless to attempt to apply it to any 

 one species : the Spaniards probably called the fruit of every 

 Passion Flower they met with, by that name, and in their 

 South American territories the native species of Passiflora 

 are numerous. 



The supposition that the P. incarnata is a native of the 

 Brazils, is more easily disposed of, and must, I think, be 

 altogether rejected. Marcgraff's account of the plants 

 of the Brazils was published in 1648 ; he mentions four 

 species of the " Granadilla of the Spaniards, vulgb Flos 

 Passionis" producing edible fruit : he calls them Maracujas, 

 and describes, and gives a small figure of, each ; but his 

 descriptions and figures are very incomplete. His Mara- 

 cuja 3 maliformis, with a three-lobed leaf, and a yellow 

 fruit, was conjectured to be the plant which the Peruvian 



